


Toasty

by ChestnutBrumby



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Caught in the rain cliche, F/M, Pre-Relationship, These dorks, season two
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-26 19:50:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14409384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChestnutBrumby/pseuds/ChestnutBrumby
Summary: Jake takes Amy home after a after-work drink (or three in Amy's case) drink at Shaw's.





	Toasty

**Author's Note:**

> I knew I needed to write at least some Peraltiago before Wednesday when my life will be consumed by Avengers for all of eternity. RIP CB's soul. 
> 
> Set during the later half of season two because I am a wombat who loves digging up _what could have happeneds_.

Jake flashed his best grin at Amy, and she tried not to notice how it lit up his beautiful dark eyes or made his chin dimple even more defined, which somehow were details that seemed exceptionally difficult for three-drink Amy to ignore. 

"Come on Santiago, I'll take you home." Jake offered. Terry had already crashed out early, citing reading bedtime stories for the girls, and Boyle and Gina were over at a corner table and were arguing over... actually Amy, no matter how many drinks she'd had, didn't really want to know what they were arguing over. 

"I can casth a taxi." She insisted, slurring only a bit, but Jake just laughed and steered her outside by the elbow, patiently supporting her when she stumbled down a single and very shallow step onto the sidewalk. "You hate taxis, I know you're planing to walk home." He informed her smugly. "Come on, humour me. You won't even remember my incredibly chivalrous and heroic act of kindness tomorrow, so don't feel bad about accepting my help."

She tripped again, this time over a bottletop somebody had discarded, oddly conscious of the strength of Jake's fingers around her arm as he steadied her like he'd been expecting it. Amy bent to pick up the bottletop and he tsked and pulled her back up again. "Nope. No touching street rubbish." He lectured. "In the car with you." 

Amy did notice he opened the door for her, which stuck in her brain for reasons she couldn't quite work out. She had to admit, it was nice to be out of the plunging temperature outside, and she shivered and rubbed her palms together to warm up. Jake noticed and turned the heater on for her. She spent the short trip to her apartment block enjoying the sensation of warm air unfreezing her skin, drowsily lecturing Jake about the amount of rubbish in his car. She hummed along to the Backstreet Boys album that Jake had in his CD player, and switched to teasing him about not only his love of nineties pop but the fact he was still toting CDs around instead of an MP3 player, while Jake whined his ancient car CD player didn't have a usb port. 

They hit a snag when they reached her street. 

"Is there a farmers market on tomorrow I don't know about? Because if there is Terry is going to flip." Jake complained as he cruised slowly along the street looking for a parking spot. Amy laughed at him from where she was sitting, sprawled just slightly diagonally in his passenger seat. "I think there was better parking outside Shaw's." She teased. 

Jake poked his tongue out. "We could always go back but I think you've had enough tonight, Amy Dance Pants." Amy wondered if she'd imagined Jake watching her as she, Gina and Terry (He only needed one drink, he hadn't done a lot of serious drinking since his twins were born) danced. 

She had a vivid flashback then to the look Jake had shot her over great-aunt Susan's head at Boyle's father and Gina's mother's wedding. 

"How come you weren't drinking tonight?" Amy found herself asking. He didn't bat an eyelid. "So I could be your knight in shining amour and drive you home of course." 

"For real." She pressed. It wasn't like Jake didn't have a lot on his plate. In the past few weeks he'd been kidnapped and threatened, had his disappointment of a father visit and miss out on scoring with Jenny Gildenhorn at the aforementioned wedding. 

Somehow Amy couldn't being herself to harbor many regrets about the last thing though. 

Jake opened his mouth, a semi-serious look in his eyes making Amy wonder if he was going to give her a straight answer, maybe even without a joke throw in. Instead he gave a triumphant exclamation and pulled the car into a parking spot. "Victory is ours!" He crowed. 

"We're like three blocks from my apartment, Jake." 

Jake swept out of the driver's seat and around to the passenger side, swinging open her door. "Why yes madam, of course I'll walk you home." He gestured grandly, and Amy had to giggle at his theatrics, accepting the hand he offered her at the end of his flourish and allowing him to guide her out of his car. 

It might even have been slightly romantic if the moment lasted more than two seconds before the skies above parted and began dumping very heavy and very freezing rain on them both. Amy shrieked and Jake let out a rather undignified yelp. 

"Run for it!" He shouted, a laugh threatening behind the breathlessness of being pelted with cold rain. And, without letting go of Amy's hand, he dashed up the street with her. They dodged from awning to overhang to fire escape, Amy a strange mixture of chilled from the rain and warmed by the run and perhaps Jake's fingers around her own. As they paused from the onslaught under a shop front, buoying up the courage to bolt to the next semblance of shelter, Amy began shivering slightly. She felt a moment of disappointment when Jake let go of her hand. 

"Here, put this on before you turn into a pantsuit-wearing icicle." He instructed, holding out his leather jacket. Amy made a sound of protest. "Jake, I can't take th-" A gust of wind blew what felt like an ocean of rain underneath their scant shelter and Amy shrieked, flinching towards Jake. He took the opportunity to feed one of her arms through the jacket and tug it up over her shoulder, and she found herself acquiescing and offering her other arm. Jake hadn't changed after work - he was still in his normal flannel shirt, with a light hoodie zipped up over the police badge Amy knew would still be hanging around his neck. She'd long since stopped noticing how much attention she paid to details like that when Jake was concerned. In any case he was better equipped to deal with the cold than the outfit Amy has changed into for Shaw's, a long sleeved but light blouse. 

"Jake, you'll catch a cold!" She protested, an he snorted lightly, his hands lingering for a second on the collar of his jacket as he fixed it in place for her. "That isn't how cold viruses are spread, Santiago." He lectured, in that tone he had that was always delighted to sound smart in front of her, but they both flinched when another gust blew more rain onto them. 

"Come on, let's do science debate after we get you home!" Jake urged, and they took off running again. 

Despite the added protection of his jacket, her teeth were chattering by the time they reached her apartment block, and Amy was more aware of the fact Jake hadn't taken her hand again than she was of the driving rain. 

"Here, let me give you this back." She fumbled with the leather jacket, not sure if it was just a difficult item of clothing to remove when wet or if subconsciously she wanted to cling to the familiar Jake-scent infusing the garment. His hand closed over her shaking fingers. Amy couldn't recall the last time he touched her this much. She really regretting having no feeling in her fingers thanks to the cold.

"Don't be silly Ames, keep it tonight." He didn't even joke around abut what an honor it was for her to have his prize item of clothing in her possession like she expected. She also got a little hung up on the nickname. Jake usually caleld her Santiago more often than Amy, but she wasn't certain she'd ever heard that exact nickname before. 

"Amy?" Jake was staring at her a little oddly and she realized she'd been going over a mental list of their recent interactions searching for the nickname 'Ames'. And not responding to whatever he'd just asked her. 

"Oh, sorry. The cold- what did you just say?" 

"I said I'll see you tomorrow." Amy had no idea why she grasped his now soaking sleeve. "Wait." 

He turned an expectant look on her. 

"Come up." She regretted it the moment the grin appeared on his face and he batted his eyelashes coquettishly at her. "Why, Amy Santiago, are you hitting on me?" He teased, and she socked his in the arm. Hard enough to make him wince. 

"Don't be a dick about it." She warned. She was soaking and grumpy and she didn't ever want to give Jake back his leather jacket. 

"Did you just call me a dick?" Hopefully Jake's voice didn't tremble because usually upright Amy Santiago using the word dick, even as an insult and not in the fun way, filled him with all sorts of wild ideas. 

"You're acting like a dick. Now come on. You're soaking, you can dry off and stay until you can get back to your car without getting drowned." She was almost surprised when Jake obediently fell in behind her, almost immediately too. Though she searched her mind for conversational topics, it was in vain. They reached her front door without a word passing between them. Amy was a bit too buzzed to decide if the silence was comfortable or uncomfortable, but either way an air of tension prevailed. 

The click of the front door sounded abnormally loud. Amy headed for the heating controls and fetched Jake a towel on her way back into the living room. Jake flashed a grin at her as he rubbed his fingers over the lace edging. 

"Only you, Amy Santiago, would own lacy towels." He teased, and she stuck her tongue out at him, turning away to put the kettle on before he noticed how still he went staring at her for those few seconds. For her part, she'd been trying hard not to imagine those long fingers of his caressing her skin instead of her towels... 

"Coffee?" 

"Mm, anything warm." The fervor with which he agreed let Amy know that despite all his jokes, he'd gotten as chilled as her, probably more so since he'd donated his jacket to her. They shed damp outer layers, toweled dry and curled up with blankets (crocheted, of course) on Amy's couch. They had a heated debate over Mortal Kombat characters when the movie played at some obscene hour, and Amy knocked Jake out of the park with her knowledge on original storylines from the games and eater eggs in both it and the movie. Her upbringing with seven brothers had ensured a pretty decent education when it came to gaming, much to Jake's surprise. He conceded and got up to make the next round of coffee. He didn't make his strong. He felt like he wouldn't ever sleep. 

"Okay so in this movie - not the game - which character an I?" Jake asked her once they finally agreed that Sub-Zero would have been doomed during a fight with Scorpion. 

She snorted. Drunk Amy lost some of the inhibitions sober Amy clung to. Jake loved it. 

"Well that's an easy one. You're Johnny Cage. You're cocky, flirty, immature, think way too much of yourself-" 

"Hey, to all accounts!" Jake interrupted indignantly. 

"Let me finish! Johnny's also brave, smart, loyal to his friends, and has a really strong moral conscience." 

Jake rolled playfully into Amy, sitting beside him on the couch. "You do care!" She shoved him off, but they lingered closer after that, bantering and arguing until Amy eventually was seized by sleep. 

As Jake has suspected, he didn't feel in the slightest tired himself, and he didn't think it was the coffee, ether. He gazed for about three full minutes down at Amy's face, peacefully scrunched against his shoulder, thinking she was literally the only person in the world who could scrunch peacefully. And still look like the sexiest woman on the entire planet. 

The rain didn't let up all night, and Jake would, for over a year, remain tight-lipped about the umbrella he spotted tucked away beside the fridge, which he'd detected less than a minute after walking into Amy's kitchen. 

Sometimes you just had to enjoy the right now.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: Literally the morning after watching the ep with the Backstreet Boys' opening sequence, 'I Want it That Way' came on at work. I was laughing so hard picturing Andy singing it I had to hide in the bathroom.


End file.
